Speeding Bullets A Final Fantasy XV One Shot
by UsernameToFollow
Summary: A simple hunt goes wrong when the Magitek Troopers show up and the bullets start flying. *Feel free to comment be it good or bad...or not it's really up to you*


Hunting. It was an activity that the four all had different feelings towards, to Ignis it was a necessity, it put food on the table both literally and in the sense that many hunts paid generous amounts of Gil. For Gladio, hunting was when he felt truly comfortable, utilising his survival skills for stalking his prey and his almost superhuman strength for taking it down. Prompto often took the hunts as an opportunity to spend time with his favourite people as well as getting some good shots of the creatures and their surroundings. To Noctis, hunting was something he did because Ignis and Gladio said so, he'd much rather be fishing.

"Gla…" Noctis opened his mouth to ask if they were any closer to finding their target, but was quickly silenced by Gladio who gestured up ahead at the Garulessa they were here to take down. Upon seeing the creature, the four all summoned their weapons and prepared to strike, the group silently looked to Noctis to know when to attack, they had been in this position so many times before that Noctis did not even need to say anything, the second he moved the group moved with him and the onslaught began.

Prompto shot at the monster almost acting as a distraction, this allowed for Gladio to get close and attack the leg of the beast in some attempt to prevent it from charging at any one of the group. Ignis and Gladio continued to swing blades and daggers at the monster deftly evading all attacks the monster attempted, all the meanwhile Prompto was unrelenting at shooting the beast. Noctis warped above the creature and brought down an axe dealing the critical blow which took the monster out once and for all.

"Textbook performance Noct." Ignis said with a smile as he dismissed his weapons and took out two bags which he unfurled ready to carry the meat for transportation.

"Thanks, you need a hand carving that thing. I mean, it _is_ huge."

"That won't be necessary Noct. Thank you anyway but I believe Gladio and I have got this covered."

"Yeah, you and Prom just keep an eye out Ok." Gladio added as he began to slice the fur and skin off the large animal, revealing the fine meat which he and Ignis began to carve. There was plenty to take back to claim their reward and for Ignis to cook some heavenly Garulessa steaks for dinner.

After twenty minutes both bags were filled with generous amounts of meat both of which Gladio slung over his shoulder, noting that given how much they had carved there should be a lot less Garulessa on the ground in front of them.

"I don't fear it will go to waste but we have more than we need." Ignis replied as he wiped his hands clean, and headed off in the direction of the diner where they were to deliver the meat, the others quickly followed suit.

For five minutes the friends happily walked on, only stopping twice to locate where Prompto had run off to in order to take a nice photograph. However, the second time to group paused to wait for their friend Ignis ears pricked at the sound of a faint hum that was approaching them, he looked to the sky and there it was.

"Imperial dropship!" He yelled to the others and in less than half a second the group were all brandishing their weapons ready for the Magitek Troopers that were descending from the ship to attack the group. Noctis looked at the enemies as they landed and quickly tried to decide what to do.

"Gladio! Try and get behind them and attack them from that side." At Noctis' instruction Gladio summoned his large shield and barrelled through the lines of soldiers, when he broke through their formation his shield changed into his trusty Greatsword and he began to attack.

On the other side of the troops Noctis, Ignis and Prompto were picking off the Imperials one by one. They were like a well-oiled machine, each swipe and shot hitting its mark, the three moved passed one another to reach their target so nimbly that it was almost as if their fight were beautifully choreographed.

They were nearing the end of the battle when a second dropship arrived deploying another wave of Magitek Troopers, much to the dismay of the group who now had to make their energy stretch further than they had expected. Noctis focused his energy, raised his hand and released a blizzard at the remaining troops from the first wave.

"Hey watch it!" Gladio shouted to Noctis as the edges of the blizzard hit him and his compatriots, the spell proved effective though as the cold made the machines seize allowing them to be easily taken out. The second wave was right behind them, there was no time to strategize, the four just gave into their instincts, their muscle memory engaged from so many fights against the empire before.

Blades and bullets hit the metal troops, who in turn returned fire of their own, each man stepping, ducking and warping out of the path of the enemy ammunition. There were few enemies left but the Prince and his entourage were beginning to tire but their offence did not falter, their speed in reacting however did. Bullets rang out constantly, it was the score of the fight but one shot was met with a scream.

Being shot wasn't at all how Prompto had anticipated, initially, the pain wasn't sharp it wasn't piercing it was as if he had been punched in the stomach, as if a large flat fist had struck him to the left of his navel and the shockwaves resonated through every fibre of his being. It wasn't until his senses caught up with the situation that he felt as if he was being ripped open and he felt every cell of every tissue in the bullet's path be torn apart. It was such an intense shearing pain that it was almost cold until the blood started to pour creating such an intense heat it was almost as if the friction of the bullet had ignited a fire within the wound. It could only have taken a second for the bullet to pierce him but Prompto felt as if he stood in that moment for an eternity constantly replaying the pain of the shot, it wasn't until the hundredth repeat that a scream escaped his lips.

The three uninjured men all turned in the direction of the scream where they noticed Prompto stood there unmoving, almost lifeless, neither allowed themselves to look too long and quickly dispatched of the last enemies before running to join their friend.

"Prom, what happened?" Noctis tried to shake his friend back to the present moment and was met with Prompto's shiny blue eyes and classic smile but no words immediately.

"Oh." Gladio said in his gruff tone as he pointed to a blood red hole in the gunman's shirt.

"Prompto! You got shot…Prompto!" Noctis continued to shake his friend trying to illicit some sort of response all he got in return were some unintelligible words and Prompto becoming a dead weight falling into the prince's shoulder.

"Gladio." Was all Ignis said as he took the bags from the bodyguard's hands, it was all he had to say, Gladio understood completely. He hoisted the injured man onto his shoulder feeling the warm sticky blood seep into his shirt as he carried him on the way towards the camp.

When they reached the haven Ignis instructed Gladio to set Prompto down which he did carefully as not to cause the young blond any more pain, Noctis set himself down next to Prompto and stared at Ignis with such a pained expression it was almost as if he had been shot himself.

"He's going to be Ok right Iggy?" Noctis asked as he took his friend's hand and watched Ignis retrieve the first aid kit.

"I certainly hope so Noct. First thing's first, roll him onto his side for me." Noctis placed one arm around the man on the ground and gently rolled him so that Prompto was facing him. Ignis lifted the back of the young man's shirt and a worried look took hold of his face.

"What is it, Iggy?" Noctis asked as Ignis took Prompto from his hands and rolled him back to a supine position.

"I'm afraid the bullet did not pierce all the way through."

"What does that mean?"

"It means he's gotta take the bullet out." Gladio added as he knelt by Prompto's head.

"I'm afraid so, do you think you could hold him still Gladio?"

"I can try." The large man said as he moved to place one large forearm across the young man's shoulders and placed his right hand on Prompto's left hip just a few inches below the bullet hole. Gladio's knuckles turned white as he clenched them at the site of Ignis removing a long pair of forceps from the first aid kit. Noctis felt lost as to what to do so he shifted to pin down Prompto's legs, hoping that might help.

Ignis gave the two men a silent nod and pushed the forceps in the open wound. The second the metal hit his skin Prompto began to write on the ground, luckily Gladio was strong enough to keep him moving too much and causing himself any more harm. Ignis was almost in pain himself as he moved the tool within his friend trying to find the bullet. Then he heard the familiar noise of metal on metal and he knew he'd found the bullet, in as neat of a motion as he could manage Ignis opened the forceps, moved them down, had hold of the foreign object and quickly removed it.

In what Noctis saw only as a flurry of arms, Ignis had discarded the bloodied forceps and retrieved a bandage which he handed to Gladio instructing him to hold it in place with as much pressure as he felt the young man could handle. Gladio obliged as Ignis held a potion to Prompto's lips and emptied the contents into his throat. Noctis sat there feeling almost entirely useless, he sat there absorbed in the thought that he could lose his best friend, then he heard a faint noise.

"Noct!" Ignis called for the third time, this instance Noctis heard and looked at his advisor.

"Noct, I need you to wake him up, keep him talking." Noctis was not about to question Ignis' when it came down to caring for his friends so he quickly ran around Gladio and sat by Prompto's side and shook him until he woke up.

"Noct?" Prompto replied in a strained voice which slowly turned into a chuckle.

"What are you laughing at?" Noctis asked, almost angry that his friend wasn't taken this potentially fatal situation as seriously as he should be.

"Just funny when you think about it. The gunman getting the shot. Besides if any one of us was going to get shot you'd think it'd be Gladio, I mean he's a much bigger target."

"Hey, I heard that." Gladio said as he checked the flow of the blood from the wound, it was time for Ignis to clean and bandage him up.

"This may sting a bit." Ignis said as he poured some water on the bullet hole before applying a fresh bandage. As he did so Prompto uttered a string of almost curse words.

"I think you and I have different definitions of a bit Iggy."

"My apologies. How are you feeling?"

"I'm…Ok." All the energy that had been in his voice initially was beginning to fade.

"Keep him awake Noct, he's lost a lot of blood. Here give him this." Ignis said quickly handing over a second potion. Which Noctis administered to Prompto in much the same way Ignis had the first.

"Drink up Prom. And just so you know when you're better you're in serious trouble for scaring me like this. Also, Gladio might get you for that 'bigger target' comment"

"You're damn right." Gladio replied with a smirk as he wiped the blood from his hands and changed into a fresh shirt.

"Nah I'll be fine, Gladio never follows through with his threats, he loves me too much" Prompto shot back as the group all laughed knowing he wasn't wrong. In an attempt to keep Prompto awake and alert, Noctis fetched the former's camera and got him to talk through the history behind each one however self-explanatory. Noctis felt guilt making him talk so much, his breath was shallower than usual and you could tell he was fighting through the pain to get all of the words out, but Noctis' guilt was appeased by knowing this what needed to be done.

As the two younger men talked about Prompto's snapshots Ignis decided dinner was in order, he instructed Gladio to take to take one of the bags of Garulessa meat to the diner in order to collect the reward and return with a few more potions, they had only one left and Ignis intended on using that on Prompto in five minutes or so.

"Ok, I'll be back soon, take care of him, Iggy." Gladio said as he picked up one of the bags and began to leave in the direction of the diner not really wanting to leave his friend in this condition but he knew he was of more use making the delivery than trying to take care of anyone.

As Gladio was by himself the round trip didn't take long, between his long strides and not being distracted by anyone he was back at the camp in less than half an hour where he was glad to see Prompto was sat in a chair and was more alert than when he left. The big guy walked over to where Ignis was cooking and handed over a bag of supplies, a few potions and some more food.

"Thank you Gladio. Run into any trouble on the way." Ignis asked as he flipped the steaks in the pan.

"Nah, smooth sailing the whole way. He looks better." Gladio remarked nodding in the direction of the campfire.

"Yes, I think he'll make quite the recovery. Why don't you go and join them, dinner won't be for a while."

"I was hoping you'd be done when I got back, you're killing me, Iggy." Gladio laughed as he went to sit by the campfire. As he approached the younger two he noticed them sharing glances and laughing.

"What's so funny?" Gladio inquired as he took a seat. As a reply, Noctis picked up Prompto's camera and clicked a few buttons turning the screen to Gladio.

"Look what I found when we were going through Prom's camera." The photo was unflattering, to say the least, it was Gladio lying on a non-descript bed, however, he'd somehow managed to move to a position where both legs were hanging off different edges of the bed with the corner between them. He'd also managed to lose his sheet so he was laying there in nothing but shorts, and when you're as tall as Gladio shorts are very short but worst of all was the dark patch on the light blue sheet around his mouth.

"I didn't know you drooled big guy." Noctis said unable to contain his laughter.

"Where did you take that?"

"I think it was last time we were in Lestallum." Prompto replied with a grin, he was definitely feeling better.

"If I didn't feel so sorry for you I'd smash that stupid camera."

"See I told you he loves me too much."


End file.
